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Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

Joshua Jackson bids Vancouver-shot series Fringe a fond farewell

Fox gives sci-fi fans a gift-wrapped final season

Joshua Jackson stars in Fringe.

Photograph by: Smallz and Raskind
, FOX

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Joshua Jackson knows a thing or two about this final season of Fringe.

He knows, for example, that — three days into filming the final season in Vancouver — this is indeed The End.

He knows that, when his actor colleagues Anna Torv and Lance Reddick and co-writer-producer Joel “J.H.” Wyman appeared before a room of reporters at the summer meeting of the TV Critics Association, there were moments of real emotion, as he and Torv recalled the days they’ve shared with the respected theatre actor John Noble, and Reddick recalled the strange, serendipitous journey that took him from The Wire, in Baltimore, to Fringe, in Vancouver.

He knows that Fringe, which will have aired five seasons by the time it ends, will not match the six seasons Dawson’s Creek lasted between 1998-2003. Dawson’s Creek aired 128 episodes in all. Remarkably, though — through accident of timing and strange luck — Fringe’s farewell episode will coincide with its milestone 100th.

He knows that, when Torv seemed momentarily overcome by emotion on the stage late Monday, that these days will never come again, at least not the same way.

He knows that, as with Dawson’s Creek and its eponymous two-part final episode, All Good Things . . . Must Come to an End, Fringe will end on its own terms. Unlike so many TV dramas, the writers, actors, producers and crew — and Jackson made a point of giving a shout-out to Fringe’s 65-member crew — know they have 13 final episodes in which to end a story which appeared as dense and inscrutable to outsiders at times, and tie up all loose ends.

What he does not know is how Fringe will end. And, for that, he’s grateful in a way. Fringe drew a loyal, devoted, some might say obsessive fan following, in no small part because it respected its audience’s intellect, challenged them at every turn and tried not to be like anything else on TV.

At the end, when their hour in front of the media and hot lights was over, Jackson, Torv and Reddick squeezed hands quietly and tightly, and Wyman — gruff, self-assured, the confident studio writer-producer — teared up and tried not to let it show. They vanished into the shadows, to board the three-hour flight back to Vancouver and day four of filming.

These are the best of times; there are the worst of times.

“In an odd way, I’ve been given a really rare gift my two times on television,” Jackson said quietly. “We knew going into the final season of Dawson’s Creek that it was going to be the final season, and know going into the final season of this. I have plenty of friends, fellow actors in television, and have been a fan of many shows that got cut before their time. And so for us to collectively have the opportunity to go into the final season knowing it’s our last opportunity to tell our story, but knowing also that we have the opportunity to do it in a way that we can be proud of as we walk away . . . it’s not bittersweet for me, to tell you the God’s honest, because all shows end. I would rather have the ability to end well rather than just get to the end of a season and have that be that. I’m looking forward to the process of putting this to bed together, knowing it ‘s the end and we can enjoy that ride off into the sunset.”

Fringe is in just its fourth day of filming — another three months lie ahead.

Torv, for her part, said she has never known the focus she feels right now.

“My focus, only being three days into shooting the first episode of what is going to be our last season is very much on the journey. You want to make the journey count, not just go through the steps.”

“Knock it out of the park this last year,” Jackson said. “That’s the given Fox gave us. I think each one of us, and not just us but the 65 people sitting on our set in Vancouver who are the connective tissue, the brawn to the brains over here, all of us want to take the opportunity that was given to us by getting this kind of iffy last year and really make it the kick-ass finale we always said we wanted for the show.”

Torv said there are many things she’ll miss about Fringe, too many to count, but one of the biggest is the day-to-day give and take with Noble.

“I don’t think there’s a person who works on our show who doesn’t have the utmost respect for John as a person, but also as a performer,” Torv said, her voice barely a whisper. “For me, watching John, and watching Josh as well, both being more experienced than I was when I first joined, taught me — I’m still learning, essentially — how television works, and how as an actor you attack it.

“I’d always done things that were finite. You’re given this story; you plot out your arc. You know where you’re starting; you know where you’re ending, and you’d get to put in the pieces and drop little signs along the way, and that’s your craft. But television is just so fluid. And so I’d watch, particularly John, and Josh too, as they’d really, really push the envelope with their characters — not having to talk or have a conversation with the writers about it but just, slowly, slowly, slowly. And then you’d see something amazing happen, and that would then be in the next episode. That’s been the greatest thing to learn. John tries anything and everything. He’s just . . . there’s no shame there. He just gives it a go. And that’s what we always strive to do. Throw it up there. See if it works. And if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

She paused.

“We’re just a little cult show, really,” Torv said quietly, after a moment. “We’re just a little show with a little cult following, and so we’ve been able to do it properly, do it right, do right by it and do it for the people who love it. “